2 & 3 - that is usually down to the issue of playing on the same machine that hosts the server as well. Also - without the 1.1 patch you do seem to get excess 'red' lag - although in truth it never does anything for me.

What speed is your connection, what Pings do the servers you try to play on have, and do you have a firewall? The lack of servers in the server selection screen screams out 'firewall' to me (apart from Direct X)

Edited by - Chips on 2/12/2005 3:32:14 AM

I have a router and a firewall, there not the problem I already went through most of the fix areas.

My game was running fine for everything for a few months without any problems and then suddenly stopped working. When i hosted a server before this happened there was almost no lag at all. My connection speed isnt a problem either. Im running on a cable connection that hasnt ever been slow for me before. All the other games I play, even the ones bigger than freelancer dont lag at all.

What changes were made when it started having issues? Upgrades, installs, etc etc. Can you think of anything? Fraid I am out of ideas for you then

I installed freelancer demo (to test some codding)
starlancer demo

both have been removed already

my computer is only running off of my routers mac address and I cant establish a direct one so i cant rule my router out for sure.

Edited by - Loso on 2/13/2005 9:30:22 PM

I had the same problem with my Router/Modem for freelancer. original fix was to open every port FL works on. i didnt bother with that, played with lag, and then set up a DMZ.

DMZ, basically, is a full port route to a given IP addy. punch in the LAN IP of your computer and youll get full port routing through the Modem. id say to try that, otherwise, there isnt really much i can do.
Email is in the Profile if you need help on that

I cant even get on a server if I wanted to. (no server list)

My computer lags completely on the server selection screen not in a server.

I think Chips has the right idea. If your FL client worked flawlessly for several months and suddenly it didn't, then something changed. It could be your ISP, college ISP's are notorious for sniffing for excessive traffic on ports looking for the boad, ole P2Per and then blocking that port. But this is rare.

Chances are you changed something in you 'puter. What I have heard of at least 90% of the time in these cases is someone installed another game and it's install was not very efficient. Instead of checking and not touching a later version of DirectX, it installs it's own version of DirectX regardless. To make a long story short the recommended cure was just reinstall DirectX to get the latest version because for the most part it's backward compatible.

Was anything changed in your gateway/modem? FL client uses close to a dozen OUTGOING ports only (no INCOMING ports). Ordinarily most firewalls (especially hardware firewalls) are concerned about INCOMING ports only but some software firewalls, like ZoneAlarm, firewall both directions. Do you have ZA?

I assume the direct connection you mention to your gateway/modem is actually your ISP requiring you to use only your 'puter and it's unique MAC address with their gateway/modem. It's a neat trick by ISP's to ensure you have only one 'puter per Internet connection but there is a simple workaround. Today's gateways have the ability to be reconfigured to project out the WAN (Internet) side any MAC address. So if you get a gateway, put your 'puter's MAC address in it, then you can try a little test. Through the gateway, connect another 'puter with FL client and see if that works correctly. If it does that would rule out issues with your network, gateways, ISP and back to the FL global list server.

Hope any of this helps.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

It is not my directX I have 9.0c already and havent installed any games since.

I tried the ports in the server thing but it isnt doing anything, if anyone has the right ports to open up that would be good, I am using my connection from home.

I dont have zone alarm but I do have McAffe, and I already allowed the freelancer game to go through. (followed a fix posted here)

I would test my router with another computer but this is the only one that is able to run freelancer.

Edited by - Loso on 2/15/2005 6:49:01 AM

There has been talk throughout the web that the DNS are not up to their usual, efficient selves. DNS or Domain Name Server translate domain names into IP addresses. Your ISP has one but all DNS are updated from only a few servers in the world which are high level DNS. This could also be a problem when FL client tries to find the FL global list server, fllistserver.zone.msn.com. There is a way around the DNS but it has to be applied to each 'puter. In your Windoze (or WinNT) directory, look under system32 directory, then look under drivers directory, then look under etc directory for the filed named just hosts . Open this with a text editor and add the domain name and IP address of that domain.

fllistserver.zone.msn.com 207.46.204.209

You could put any other domain you are having trouble resolving, once you get their IP address usually through a WhoIs website. We have seen this help some people who's DNS seems to be a bit scrambled. Thanks to Wan Solo for the tip.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

Ok, ive tried just about everything, firewall, reinstalling, the access code thing...my server list still comes up empty, i really want to play online with people, why is it doing this? does ANYONE know how to fix it????

Earendil: You fix didnt work for me....

I worked with someone who posted about a similar problem on my forums. Myself and Wan Solo worked with a guy through TeamSpeak trying to get his FL client to connect to the FL global list server. We tried all the above tricks but nothing worked.

So then we delved into the steamy world of DirectX. Wan and I both ran DxDiag (in the system32 directory of Windoze). It's a diagnostic tool to test all parts of DirectX including DirectPlay. Since I know Wan and my FL installations work, we verified it by testing DirectPlay. I set up a DirectPlay chat server and Wan was able to log in and chat. We used TS to communicate IP address and port numbers. We had to both open INCOMING ports in our firewalls for each to chat with the other, I guess since either party could initiate a chat message.

When I tried it with this other guy it didn't work. He opened the port but could never connect through DirectPlay. When he tried to reinstall DirectX he said it took a very short time yet it's a 16 MB install! (english version, multilingual version is 34 MB!) So I think his DirectX is fubar for FL. The odd thing is he can play Halo MP just fine and with it being a M$ product, I expect they are using DirectPlay as well!

Some days you're the master and some days you just struggle to master anything.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

Ok so let me see.

People have had this problem
We basicaly know whats causing it
No one has fixed it
I really want to play multi player!!!

There seems to be ony one solution left and there is no guaruntee this will work. Wipe Windoze and reinstall everything. If the problem is hardware then really nothing should of worked so a wipe and reinstall would be moot. Also if the problem is outside your 'puter then you should move the 'puter to another Internet line (preferably one that works) and verify you 'puter indeed works.

Loso, give more information on your gateway, here or email. We'll see what we can do.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)